How far will car makers go to look good

How far will some marques go to shape the perfect press car?

20 May 2011Tony Davis

How far will some car makers go to shape the perfect road test car?

'We're just a bit more professional about it than other people.'' That's the word from Ferrari in the company's most comprehensive defence yet against accusations it isn't playing fair when it comes to road-test cars.

The issue has been bubbling away since prominent British journalist Chris Harris accused the company of covertly modifying the cars it provides to the media. It has set alight the blogosphere, seeming to confirm the belief of many that all manufacturers tamper with press cars.

Ferrari, Harris claims, uses trick engines, sticky tyres and modified suspension settings, depending not only on whether the car is to be used on road or track but, specifically, which road or track. And the famed Italian company, Harris says on US-based weblog Jalopnik, makes journalists sign restrictive contracts about how its cars are tested.

According to Ferrari spokeswoman Joanne Marshall, Ferrari maintains a few specific track cars due to the abuse inflicted on the cars by journalists.

Typical responses to Harris's story have included: ''I'm glad there's someone telling it how it is''; ''Everyone cheats''; and ''I haven't picked up an automotive magazine in years because ? rigged cars and crooked publications turn everything into one big advertisement''.

Other forums accuse Lamborghini, Porsche and most others of building press-only hot rods. ''My father bought an ex-road test [Audi] TT and it's far faster than standard TT'', wrote someone identified only as ''wunde''. But is anyone really cheating? Or, perhaps, is everyone cheating?

Certainly, no one has produced a smoking gun; most concrete examples cited in forums and press articles date to the 1990s and much earlier. But there are still grey areas about what's fair and what's not. And most manufacturers are involved in what's known as ''optimisation''.

That Ferrari denies the accusations is no surprise, though it was done with more openness than one might expect from the media-controlling Death Star alluded to by Harris. ''It is very simple: no, we don't cheat,'' Maranello-based Ferrari spokeswoman Joanne Marshall tells Drive.

However, Marshall, the former British motoring journalist who is now the company's media supremo in Italy, agrees Ferrari has supplied two cars to British magazines: one solely for road use and one for the track - and that the cars didn't have identical specifications.

''What happens in the UK is that journalists trash the cars on the track,'' she says. ''We've had situations where they have wrecked the tyres, they've wrecked the brakes and they've gone out on the road and we've had criticisms of our car. And then we find out why.''

Marshall says Ferrari now maintains a couple of track cars - ''because we know the sort of usage and abusage they get'' - but says suggestions they are modified for specific tracks or conditions is completely erroneous and they run standard road-car tyres.

However, the company does tick different option boxes for the track cars.

''Let's say they have a lot of carbon fibre options on them, whereas our standard press cars tend to be really 'specced-up' to show people what leather options there are, in-car entertainment systems and so on - and that does make a big difference to the weight,'' Marshall says. ''So we obviously quote the performance times for the 458, for example, with the carbon fibre and the forged wheels, which are official options.''

In 2003, the Holden Commodore, was markedly heavier than its brochure weight.

Some may see this as bending the rules, if not to the extent Harris alleges.

But a smart journalist will note the specification differences and Marshall is at least describing two cars representative of what people can buy.

Company insiders have told Drive that in the 1970s and '80s, press cars, production racers and other ''specials'' were often built on weekends rather than during the normal shifts. Sometimes extra welds were added to improve rigidity, carburettors were retuned, superior shock absorbers and braking materials substituted and overall tolerances tightened.

In those days, the general variance in quality was enormous, so even cherry-picking from regular production could isolate a much-better-than-average car. But often things were taken a lot further than that: in extreme cases, companies would acid-dip the bodies to thin the panels and reduce weight, blueprint engines and more.

So if they were doing it then, why wouldn't they be doing it now? Well, as much as we all like a good conspiracy theory, there are some compelling reasons why they're not.

''I do believe the days of the cowboys are over and they have been over for quite some time,'' says an engineer and marketer who has worked for Ford, Toyota and Hyundai and is now at Lexus, Peter Evans.

Evans cites ''societal, business and regulatory pressures'' and points out a new and effective brake on the cheats: the extensive benchmarking all companies now do of each other's products.

So what might a company do these days to prepare a test car?

''I don't think anyone is doctoring the cars; they would be very silly if they took that risk,'' Evans says. ''What I'm absolutely certain that everyone does is optimise the cars, by which I mean every part of a car has a specification range: plus or minus half a [millimetre], plus or minus a Newton metre ? there are thousands of measures for a car. It is very important for any manufacturer to make sure that any car driven by a journalist is representative of the engineering intent of the car and the majority of cars.

''And, therefore, if the average for all those specifications is the midpoint of that tolerance band, then, ideally, the car you want to present to journalists is in the mid range of that tolerance band. It's not the bottom end of the damper curve, it's not at the bottom end of tyre stiffness, it's not the ball in the steering free play.''

The reality, he says, is modern cars - particularly luxury models - have such tight tolerances that selection quickly hits the law of diminishing returns. Preparing road-test cars tends to be a case of ''you bed in the brakes, you run the car in, you check everything, you listen for squeaks and rattles, any obvious issues, as we would for a pre-delivery of a customer car''.

''That is pretty well the ethical limits of anything I should think should be done,'' Evans says. ''You would compromise your reputation for a very small gain.''

Marshall says much the same thing. ''Obviously, every car company prepares the car to the highest finish possible,'' she says. ''All our [Ferrari] press cars are subject to more kilometres than the delivery kilometres we would do on a normal production car but that is basically just to run them in.

''Obviously, we try to be a bit more attentive to fit and finish and make sure the car has no squeaks, no rattles and every time a car is driven by a journalist and it comes back in, we give it a full prepping, which means, again, making sure everything is OK.''

These days, brands must publish power figures and fuel-use cycles and meet strict emission standards. These are checked at the start of and during production.

''They're all certified to the government,'' Evans says. ''And if you play shonkies, you risk losing your ability to fit compliance plates, which will effectively put you out of business.''

Consumer laws relating to deceptive and misleading conduct are now stricter and better enforced. But they haven't stopped people cheating with other consumer products and services, so let's consider the incentives for car makers. A good review is worth a lot. Some marketers value a page of mainly positive editorial as worth 2? to three times as much as a page of advertising.

That helps explain why companies fly journalists around and do their best to wrap them in cotton wool. (Some journalists think it's because they are important and/or respected. Sad, sad souls.) Road tests also go so much better if the brand has the chance to choose the roads and conditions. Sometimes, even more so, if they choose the restaurants.

So, from a journalist's point of view, why go to such launches and be subjected to propaganda and optimisation? Well, it often provides an opportunity to drive a car readers want to know about six months before it will arrive in Australia. It's a chance, too, to question engineers, marketers and other insiders who rarely come here.

The US-based Consumer Reports organisation buys every car it tests at the
normal retail price. In a perfect world, we would as well. And we'd pay our way around the world for car launches and motor shows. But until the revolution, or a sudden quadrupling of paid newspaper subscriptions, there isn't going to be a perfect world.

Another big incentive for brands to garner favourable reviews is the severe restrictions on companies advertising a vehicle's performance. When it comes to fast cars, that's exactly what journalists tend to concentrate on. It's not just because of their own proclivities; any car-mag editor knows the only cover that pulls in more readers than a fast car is an even faster car. Given all that, the manufacturers must massage not just the official performance figures but the cars themselves, mustn't they?

Again, there are solid reasons why they probably optimise but don't outright cheat (we are talking major manufacturers here, not small performance makes and/or tuners, whose figures are often a source of wonderment to all).

There are also variations in pace. It's not uncommon for one press car to be a few tenths quicker than another. If you have half a dozen press cars, it makes sense to send the quickest one to the enthusiast magazines that do 0-100km/h tests.

''Everyone wants to have the best outcome,'' BMW head of product planning Toni Andreevski says. ''But the worst thing for us is if the outcome is not repeatable by customers. There is no benefit in giving better cars to the press ? we'd have thousands of angry people.''

The acceleration figures in a Ferrari brochure are achieved with only one person on board but with a full tank of petrol. Others have different criteria: all testers undoubtedly choose the most favourable friction surfaces, track and air temperatures and optimise the car's settings.

Evans says this is in the spirit of ''marketing and optimisation and fairness''.

''If a guy's interested in going from nought to 100 as quickly as possible, he's not going to be running it in eco mode,'' he says.

Curiously, several cars on the market have their official performance understated, simply because marketers don't want to broadcast that a cheaper model is quicker than its dearer stablemates.

Where Ferrari has angered Harris and others is by turning up to magazine performance tests with an engineer - or a few. Marshall says it is entirely appropriate.

''We have to be involved, because we have to ensure they have the correct insurance cover etc, etc,'' she says. ''And we turn up with fresh tyres, because that's what it comes down to; these people, they just sit there and do doughnuts. We are there simply to ensure the car meets the manufacturer's specifications and meets the performance that we have officially announced.''

Marshall says if journalists allow the tyres to become too hot, the car will be half a second slower in acceleration runs. High-speed running also suffers.

''Another thing you have to take into consideration is the sort of grip you are on ? poorer-quality asphalt and you could be two- or three-tenths off,'' she says.

Perhaps only Ferrari has enough clout to interfere to that level; certainly no other company works so hard to make sure its cars match the advertised performance figures.

''We are a formula one team, we have that approach to everything,'' Marshall says.

As for restrictive contracts, Ferrari insists they don't exist and no one has produced one (nor has Drive ever been asked to sign anything but an industry-standard form covering insurance).

So what other grey areas are there?

A recent BMW Australia press car, a 535i Gran Turismo, was equipped with $50,000 worth of options, increasing the price by a full third and, potentially, giving a reviewer a different impression.

A spokesman for BMW, Piers Scott, is adamant this is not an attempt to mislead or to misrepresent what you get for your money. ''With a limited-build car like that, we can't spread the available technology across several press cars, so we build a hero car for marketing purposes to showcase what is possible,'' he says.

''The 'price-as-tested' sheet is available to all.''

Scott says some people do tick all the boxes and the average buyer of a 535i GT will spend 10 to 25 per cent of the total price on options.

There's been suspicion of fuel additives and better shock absorbers being added and hearsay suggests European car of the year judges found the letters ''COTY'' chalked on to the suspension of the Ford Mondeo they were given for evaluation in 2001.

Again, we are missing a smoking gun but if there was cheating, logically it would be more likely in these greyer areas than in ''hot chipping'' engines for more power.

Dramatically upping engine power affects emissions, which a journalist can't readily measure, and fuel use, which he or she can. It also increases the noise, vibration and harshness engineers have been working to suppress. Gaining in any area generally causes losses in another, particularly in the modern electronic era.

Also, if a car's performance is outstanding, people notice.

This brings us to that surprisingly efficient check on manufacturer's claims: other manufacturers. They all swap and, in many cases, buy each other's cars for benchmarking purposes. In pursuit of industry best practice, they check not just performance attributes but factors right down to the rear-seat head room and boot capacity. Car companies also read the press and notice published statistics or claims that flatter competitors. Unlike journalists, they have the equipment to readily check everything from emissions to precise power output or suspension calibration.

In 2003, Ford Australia leaked the fact the Holden Commodore was markedly heavier than its brochure weight.

Ford's original motivation in weighing its competitor was to learn how Holden had built a car 200 kilograms lighter than the Falcon. The truth - Drive revealed - was that Holden hadn't. It had simply changed from using the industry standard ''kerb weight'' to the more flattering ''dry weight''.

Although the Holden was lighter than the Falcon, the difference was far smaller than the marketers were suggesting.

Evans, himself a voracious reader of motoring press, says: ''I don't think I've seen any road test in the past 10 years that made me say, 'Hang on, this seems strange, I don't believe this.'''

He says numbers published by other companies are in line with his own company's measurements and this has been the case almost invariably for the past 10 or 15 years.

Of course, none of the above will convince some there is anything less than systemic cheating. As any conspiracy theorist will attest, the complete absence of tangible evidence just proves how clever and all-pervading the conspiracy is.

Tyred and true

''Cheats never prosper'' is an adage that simply doesn't survive in motor racing, where grey areas reduce rule books to pulp.

Formula one chief Bernie Ecclestone summed up the situation nicely: ''If I didn't associate with people who cheat, I wouldn't be able to speak to anyone.''

In my time at Top Gear, we hosted every manufacturer from Alfa Romeo to Pagani and my duty was to measure their machines toe-to-toe. I was recently asked if any of them ever cheated. I had to laugh but then I thought about it.

No two supercar manufacturers ever handled a track test the same way. The simplest rule we imposed - a full tank of fuel - was typically ignored by those who figured the car would run lighter and, therefore, faster with half a tank.

During heavy cornering the fuel would stick to the side of the tank and run dry, which cost the Pagani Zonda nearly half a second on its best run. One horse's head for the technician, per favore.

Supercar builders think about stuff such as fuel and weight because they are more motor racing than motor transport. No one ever bothered to half-fill a Ford Focus. When Koenigsegg arrived with its CCX (pictured), it was shaped like a bullet and set up for straight-line speed. This, they believed, was the best configuration for our track. A nosedive through the tyre wall corrected this theory, so Koenigsegg returned with a high-downforce set-up and a crew scale that would make NASA blush.

The time I eventually posted was a lap record. Was modifying cheating? No. It's called innovation. With handcrafted hypercars built in modest supply, no two are identical anyway.

The most passionate innovators I have ever met are from Ferrari. Men in blood-red coats stand shivering at the trackside, desperate for a glimpse of their baby hammering across the line as they pounce on their stopwatches. They rush in, checking tyre pressures and feverishly asking for feedback.

When you post a fast time in a Ferrari you know it before you see the watch. The men in red levitate.

But performance-testing by the media remains flawed because the biggest factor is the tyres and they always vary. The Ferrari F430 lost two seconds a lap and handled like a dog until we switched to Pirelli tyres. Sometimes you just have to judge them using your gut.

BEN COLLINS

Ben Collins is a racing driver who was Top Gear's The Stig in a previous life.

Line Dancing

Car companies don't just ''optimise'' their cars for the media.

When Jac Nasser (pictured) was president of Ford Australia in the 1990s, he used to drive cars fresh off the production line as part of a campaign to improve quality at the company's Broadmeadows plant in Victoria.

The story goes that ''Jac's'' car would be marked for special attention as it went down the line. The factory's bosses would then present a car that had been given a little more TLC than the others. If ever Nasser thought that something might be happening, he simply declined the car and asked for one from a little further back down the line.

RICHARD BLACKBURN

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